Louis Miller officially becomes GM

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s choice for the new Hartsfield-Jackson general manager, Louis Miller, was approved by a unanimous City Council vote on October 18. The vote was the last step in formalizing the appointment.

Miller began working as the Airport general manager on September 27.

Aviation General Manager Louis Miller

Airport celebrates Latino Heritage Month

Students from three local high schools are getting a glimpse of the opportunities in aviation for Hispanic Americans through the Airport’s annual celebration of Latino Heritage Month.

Mentoring luncheons, which featured remarks by Hispanic leaders in aviation, were held with South Atlanta Educational Complex (October 7), North Clayton High School (October 14) and Tri-Cities High School (October 22). Students also participated in an essay contest, the theme of which was the importance of exhibiting great leadership.

Assistant General Manager Arnaldo Ruiz (center) poses for a photo with Pete Ramos (from left) of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA); second-place essay winner Erica Paredes; third-place essay winner Leticia Martinez; and Veronica Ramos of the TSA. The South Atlanta Educational Complex students attended the mentoring luncheon on October 7.

Recycling event yields 1,200 pounds of electronics

The Airport’s second Employee Electronics Recycling Day yielded an estimated 1,200 pounds of recyclable electronics.

Seven televisions and a toaster estimated to be more than 50 years old were among the personal electronics turned in October 14 by 28 Airport employees. Other items brought in for recycling included computers, vacuum cleaners, radios, camcorders, electric razors and cell phones.

“[Hartsfield-Jackson] continues to do its part to reduce environmental impact by recycling items instead of placing them in a landfill,” said Tom Nissalke, director of Environmental and Technical Services.

This old camcorder was among the items that Airport employees brought in for recycling on October 14.

Hartsfield-Jackson hosts Chinese delegations

Delegations from Zhengzhou and Wuhan in China recently came to Hartsfield-Jackson to learn best practices in building airports. Aviation planners Moniqua Williams, Yasmina Platt and Matt Felton presented to the delegations.

“It was a great opportunity to share information about the world’s busiest and most efficient airport with the Chinese delegation,” Williams said. “We discussed Airport operations, layout, passenger flow and economic impact as they begin airport construction in their cities.”

Aviation planners Moniqua Williams (center) and Yasmina Platt (right) talk about airport layout with delegates from China.

Publisher honors Hartsfield-Jackson CIO

Hartsfield-Jackson Chief Information Officer Lance Lyttle has been selected for the 11th annual 50 Most Important African-Americans in Technology list by eAccess Corp., a San Francisco-based publisher. The list honors African-Americans with exceptional leadership in technology and innovation. This is his second time on the list.

“It’s an honor to be included among these industry leaders for the second time in a row,” Lyttle said. “I share this recognition with the talented members of the Airport’s information technology team. Keeping the world’s most efficient airport on the cutting edge of technology requires a lot of hard work and dedication, but they are always up to the challenge.”

Honorees will gather for a symposium in Washington on January 15.

Airport Chief Information Officer Lance Lyttle

TSA employees enroll in training program

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees working at Hartsfield-Jackson are being offered a training program at Georgia Perimeter College. 

The program is designed to help employees improve their awareness of security threats and ability to analyze information. The TSA covers all tuition and fees, and students can earn up to nine college credits and TSA certificates of achievement. Course topics include an introduction to homeland security, transportation and border security, intelligence analysis and security technology.

About 40 TSA officers enrolled in the first two class offerings.

Hartsfield-Jackson receives positive credit ratings

Hartsfield-Jackson has received reaffirmed or upgraded credit rating assignments from Fitch Inc. and Moody’s Investors Service relating to bond issuances for financing the construction of the new Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal and to outstanding bonds.

Fitch assigned an A+ rating to the proposed $176 million senior-lien airport general revenue bonds (GARBs) series 2010A and an A rating to the proposed $414 million airport passenger facility charge and subordinate-lien general revenue bonds (PFC hybrid bonds) series 2010B. Moody’s assigned an A1 rating for the GARBs and an A1 rating for the PFC hybrid bonds.

Fitch also reaffirmed an A+ rating on outstanding GARBs and an A rating on outstanding PFC hybrid bonds. Moody’s reaffirmed an A1 rating on outstanding GARBs but upgraded to A1 the rating on outstanding PFC hybrid bonds. Both agencies rated the bond outlook stable.